Multiple quakes rock Indonesia's Lombok island, two dead

Multiple earthquakes -- including a powerful and shallow 6.9-magnitude tremor -- struck Indonesia's Lombok, killing at least two people and sending fresh panic coursing through the already battered island.

A series of quakes were recorded by seismologists throughout yesterday, the first measuring 6.3 shortly before midday which triggered landslides and sent people fleeing for cover.

It was followed nearly twelve hours later by a late evening quake measuring 6.9 and at least five more significant aftershocks, according to the US Geological Survey.

The picturesque island is already reeling from two devastating quakes on July 29 and August 5 that killed nearly 500 people and made hundreds of thousands homeless.

National disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said two people were killed by the quake late Sunday evening, one in eastern Lombok and the other on the neighbouring island of Sumbawa.

"Two people died... from falling debris and many houses collapsed because of the 7-magnitude earthquake," he said on Twitter, giving a slightly higher local measurement for the largest quake.

Blackouts had hit much of Lombok, he added, posting pictures of cracked roads and video footage of a large fire that broke out in a village on Sumbawa.

One local Lombok resident said that powerful tremor jolted him awake.

"The earthquake was incredibly strong. Everything was shaking," Agus Salim told AFP.

"We were all sleeping in an evacuation tent. I had just fallen asleep when suddenly it started to shake.... Everyone ran into the street screaming and crying."